White: St-Pierre-Hendricks next since champ believes Silva will lose to Weidman

LAS VEGAS – If Johny Hendricks continues to worry about whether his title fight with welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre ever will take place, he can relax for a minute.

But he may not know for a while just when or where that title fight will be.

UFC President Dana White on Saturday said Hendricks (15-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) and St-Pierre (24-2 MMA, 18-2 UFC) will fight each other next – with the possibility of St-Pierre fighting middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a superfight off the table because St-Pierre doesn’t believe Silva will beat Chris Weidman at UFC 162 in July.

White said he was not yet sure when the fight will take place, but he dismissed a rumor that it might happen in Toronto when the UFC returns to St-Pierre’s home country of Canada for UFC 165.

“Toronto, Sept 21?” White asked. “Not true.”

Hendricks in March beat Carlos Condit at UFC 158 and was promised the next title shot. On the same card, St-Pierre beat Nick Diaz in the main event in his home city of Montreal. Diaz had jumped ahead of Hendricks in line for the shot at the longtime champ despite coming back from a yearlong suspension and a loss to Condit in his previous outing.

White said he spoke to St-Pierre on Saturday prior to UFC 160, which took place at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

White said his welterweight champ was now positive that waiting for a potential superfight with Silva would be a moot point.

“We had a good conversation,” White said. “He 100 percent, absolutely, positively knows that Weidman is going to beat Anderson Silva. No doubt in his mind that the fight with [Silva] won’t happen because Weidman is going to win. There’s no ‘what if’ for him. He absolutely, positively knows [Weidman] is going to win that fight.”

St-Pierre has defended his title eight consecutive times. His win over Diaz in March came after a long layoff due to a knee injury and subsequent surgery.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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